Which Pixelart Software?
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=15417
Printed Date: 04 April 2026 at 7:19am
Topic: Which Pixelart Software?
Posted By: Robster
Subject: Which Pixelart Software?
Date Posted: 14 November 2012 at 11:30pm
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Hi people.
Which software do you use for your pixelarts? I already tried Aseprite, Gimp, Pro Motion and GrafX2. Since Pro Motion isn't free I need to know if it's worth to buy it? I like to use it but maybe there is better software out there. Greetings, Robster. |
Replies:
Posted By: lavago
Date Posted: 27 November 2012 at 1:42pm
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Personally I use a program called Pixen, but it's only for mac.
Though if you have a mac a strongly recommend it, and it's FREE! |
Posted By: dragonheartman
Date Posted: 30 November 2012 at 11:12am
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I use a program for windows called http://www.gmaker.org/downloads/view.asp?id=248 - iDraw .
It supports 256 colors or less with a manipulatable palette, animations, remapping hotkeys, and more. It's fairly robust for less than half a mb in size. |
Posted By: Schoening
Date Posted: 03 December 2012 at 2:05am
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I followed one of the Tutorials and decided for GrafX2, it's GNU GPL v2 licenced = free.
And I love the dDos Look :D |
Posted By: 1337B337
Date Posted: 03 December 2012 at 7:53pm
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Try a few of 'em. I've tried GraphicsGale, GrafX2, Aseprite; I've even used Paint Tool Sai at one point. |
Posted By: Daimoth
Date Posted: 21 December 2012 at 6:22am
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Graphics Gale is great, but it lacks .gif support on the non-Japanese version. You supposedly have to convert .avi's to .gif with that one.
I recommend GIMP, since it will serve your needs beyond the just pixel art. But yeah, if you use mac, Pixen is very good. My iMac died, though. 
|
Posted By: blackstrip
Date Posted: 26 December 2012 at 9:45am
| I use my own "PaintCAD 4Windows" software (it is free) - http://blackstrip.ru/pcw.rar =) You can draw images with it, assemble animations (GIF, AVI), 3D images (MPO), create your own fonts (PCF) e.t.c. |
Posted By: Sajextryus
Date Posted: 27 December 2012 at 9:21pm
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I usually use Pixen, though it's only on Mac. There's not really any special features in it (other than layers and alpha and stuff), but it's really well designed and has a lot of useful functions most pixel artists can really make use of (like exporting animations to GIF, custom upscaling, easy access to color palette of project, and saving animations to spritesheets).
Though I don't see a lot of work being made in Pixen, you can definitely make some great things with it! Pretty much all the stuff I've uploaded here has been made in it. Currently I'm trying to get used to GraphicsGale on Windows, but I'm not quite so familiar with how to do much in it, yet. |
Posted By: HugoZanin
Date Posted: 10 January 2013 at 8:00pm
| From my little experience with Pixel Art I can only quote GraFX2, as already mentioned, Photoshop and a web tool - http://makepixelart.com/free/# - Make Pixel Art - which is a extremely simple tool that has few features and a interesting color picker. |
Posted By: BossGalaga
Date Posted: 13 January 2013 at 3:44pm
| I used to use Idraw (v3) a lot. It's still a great simple tool but GraphicsGale is awesome and what I currently use for most of my pixel projects. |
Posted By: paler123
Date Posted: 24 January 2013 at 3:00am
i just posted in the other "which pixelart software thread and then saw this more recent one  just curious, no mention\interest in Deluxe paint 2? for pure pixelling i found it excellent, simple uncluttered menu, no distractions, nice. run it in 320x200, nice and low res  it runs only on 32 bit pcs i think but id definitely try it if you havent. also liked promotion quite a bit. i really dont like trying to pixel stuff in photoshop or gimp, too many popup menus that distract havent tried some of the above mentioned software so i dunno about those |
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 24 January 2013 at 4:09am
| @paler: If you're of the Amiga persuasion you should really try out GrafX2, I think you'll like it. |
Posted By: AtskaHeart
Date Posted: 24 January 2013 at 4:16am
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Grafx2 is an awesome software if you get used to it (which is pretty hard for new pixel artists tbh). DawnBringer's Toolbox is also pretty useful and can be run on Grafx2, it's very nice for palette analisys. |
Posted By: paler123
Date Posted: 24 January 2013 at 10:53am
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thanks guys, i might check out those programmes, as for using amigas, i prefer dpaint2 on the pc mostly cos my amiga monitor sucked, i think DP2 is free now, not 100% sure on that tho. |
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 24 January 2013 at 11:00am
| To clarify; GrafX2 is available for PC and it's 100% free. http://code.google.com/p/grafx2/ - GrafX2 Homepage |
Posted By: adamSrgnt
Date Posted: 27 January 2013 at 8:58pm
| Can you animate in Grafx? |
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 03 February 2013 at 1:29pm
| @adamSrgnt: Yes (it's a fairly recent addition) |
Posted By: moondrome
Date Posted: 04 February 2013 at 8:06am
| grafx rules ! |
Posted By: torguen
Date Posted: 04 February 2013 at 10:15am
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Try also aseprite, is a graphics program like gale, I have not tried a lot but seems to be good.
www.aseprite.org |
Posted By: pixotica
Date Posted: 10 February 2013 at 11:37am
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mtPaint is the best I have found, has textures, is easy to use , and was made by a pixel/isometric artist.
it can be found here http://mtpaint.sourceforge.net/ - mtPaint free iso pixel painter I also use Photofiltre, which I like for certain things. |
Posted By: Catghost
Date Posted: 26 February 2013 at 1:19pm
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Surprised to see Sai listed in here! Seems like more of a painting program, but I know it's possible to disable anti aliasing for the brushes.
I use Paint Shop pro 8 for my pixel art, personally. It's a very powerful program(layers, pallets, custom brushes, guides, etc.), yet very simple to use. It'll be turning 10 years old soon too, and even though there are newer version by corel, I've found them to be very buggy and poor. But it's more of a preference really, due to being so familiar with it, as it's what I use for nearly everything - except painting. Photoshop is a lot easier for that. |
Posted By: Etheric_Shock
Date Posted: 26 February 2013 at 10:11pm
| Grafx2 sounds pretty good. I've been looking for an animation program. I don't know if I can part with MsPaint. |